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Saturday, April 21, 2018

Fintech

Pawame named semi-finalist for M.I.Ts Innovate for Refugees Competition

By
TechMoran
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0

Off-grid solar company Pawame has been selected as a semi-finalist for the Innovate for Refugees Competition organized by the MIT Enterprise Forum – Pan-Arab Region for generating affordable, clean and safe energy to the residents of Kakuma Refugee Camp in northwestern Kenya.

According to Majd Chaaya, Pawame’s Chief Technology Officer, “The plight of refugees is one of the world’s most urgent humanitarian challenges, particularly in Africa. At Pawame we have assembled a strong team of skilled and knowledgeable innovators who are deploying technology that meaningfully improves and even transforms life for refugees in Kakuma.”

The MIT-sponsored competition attracts the best tech-driven solutions addressing the refugee crisis and rewards innovative concepts from across the globe that alleviate life-threatening challenges faced by displaced millions.

Pawame is working in partnership with non-profit REFUNITE which unites family members separated in conflict situations, to enable a free and offline Bluetooth enabled mesh communication network throughout the refugee camp.

The firm is also seeking to raise $250,000, create 50 jobs and better the lives of over 5000 people by the end of 2018 to drive electrification and connectivity in Kakuma through the distribution of its solar home system on an 18 month pay-as-you-go/rent-to-own model with affordable daily payments of $0.50.

In addition to being a charging solution that supports the use of smartphones, the solar home systems will also provide the conventional benefits of nighttime lighting (up to four lights), as well as appliances such as radio and TV.

“We are proud to be leading this effort in Kenya to provide mobile penetration and clean and affordable energy to such underserved markets,” said Pawame CEO Maurice Parets adding that this model of decentralized energy and communication can be easily replicated in refugee camps the world over.

Pawame will also showcase innovation across business models for connecting refugees, humanitarian cash transfers and the potential for mobile-enabled utility solutions to expand into disaster-affected areas at the GSMA’s Mobile World Congress set to hold in Barcelona in March this year.

Prudential Financial invests $1.5million in the emerging market-focused LeapFrog Talent Accelerator

By
TechMoran
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0
Talent development is the single greatest challenge most firms in emerging markets face.
To help solve these problems, LeapFrog Investments has launched the LeapFrog Talent Accelerator (LTA), the private equity industry’s first talent development programme for CEOs, C-suite executives and middle managers in emerging market growth firms.

According to Lata Reddy, Senior Vice President, Diversity, Inclusion & Impact, Prudential Financial, Inc., “The LeapFrog Talent Accelerator transports that ethos to some of the world’s fastest growing emerging markets. Through our support, we are helping to develop a cadre of transformative leaders that are delivering innovative solutions to consumers in Africa and Asia, ultimately creating opportunities for financial security for more people.”

LTA is backed by U.S.-headquartered Prudential Financial Inc with an investment of $1.5 million to provide institutional training and education programmes in emerging markets where there is still low take up of formal degrees.

The LeapFrog Talent Accelerator was developed in response to tackle these unmet needs, and enable sustainable growth through investment in people. In Kenya, for example, only one per cent of the population have been awarded a university degree, compared to an equivalent figure of 32 per cent in the US.

“In seeking to solve the challenge of talent development within our partner companies, we commissioned a study that revealed no in-market programmes existed in the African and Asian markets in which we operate, that could address the concerns being raised by our CEOs,” said Vaughan Lindsay, Executive Director, LeapFrog Labs.

The LTA is designed to help bridge this gap and unlock significant growth for companies, markets and economies in the process. Research from the Boston Consulting Group demonstrates that companies with strong leadership and talent management training increase their revenue more than twice as fast and their profits one and a half times faster than those without access to skills programmes.

LeapFrog developed the LTA’s bespoke curriculum with EY. It sets a new standard for executive and managerial education in emerging markets by providing a tailored programme that mixes formal classroom and technology-based learning, with mentoring, coaching, sponsorship and peer-to-peer learning between participating companies over a 12 month period.

The three target populations who will participate in the LTA are: the CEO, C-suite (CxO) and middle managers. Additionally, the LTA will also offer services aimed at professional skills development; initially around actuarial and underwriting skills.

“We see investment in people as one of the most important elements of building commercially successful and impactful businesses,” said Andy Kuper, CEO, LeapFrog Investments. “Leveraging talent management to build enduring teams capable of a high level of operational efficiency benefits participating individuals, their organisations, and our investors.”

The first class of the LTA will convene 70 individuals from LeapFrog’s partner companies IFMR Capital in India, Magma Fincorp in India, Resolution Insurance in East Africa and UT Life in Ghana.

Direct Pay Online Group acquires Setcom, its fourth acquisition in Southern Africa

By
TechMoran
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0
IMG Source:commons.wikimedia.org

Direct Pay Online Group (DPO) has mastered the fasted way of growth acquiring already exisiting companies with customers instead of going for the customers itself directly.

The firm today acquired Setcom (Pty) Ltd, which operates SID Instant EFT, the original and leading instant electronic funds transfer (EFT) solution in South Africa.

The acquisition is its fourth in Southern Africa after it acquired PayGate South Africa in September 2016, VCS Namibia and Botswana in March 2017, PayThru South Africa in June 2017, and VCS South Africa in August 2017

DPO says the deal will see Setcom complement comprehensive suite of payment solutions across the continent for all major cards, mobile money and e-wallets.

According to Offer Gat, the DPO Group Chairman: “We are excited to add South Africa’s leading Instant EFT solution to our suite of products, and look forward to working with Setcom’s innovative team, including the founder and instant EFT innovator David Liu.”

Setcom began its operations in 1999 and has been providing secure online card processing to hundreds of South African online merchants since then. In 2007, the company launched SID Instant EFT, a secure payment product that allows real-time funds transfer from a customer’s to a merchant’s bank account through an efficient and easy-to-use online platform.

SID has enabled merchants across South Africa to collect instant EFT payments via websites, email or invoices, and has become one of the most popular online payment methods in the country.

The acquisition of Setcom, and the subsequent incorporation of SID Instant EFT into the DPO product suite, will allow DPO to be the first Payment Service Provider (PSP) to offer merchants with a single solution for all their online payment needs, ensuring that through a single and simple integration, merchants will be able to accept payments through card, mobile money and EFT across the African continent.

Though DPO Group says it serves over 25,000 online merchants in Africa including over 50 airlines, thousands of hotels, restaurants, travel agents, tour operators and other players in the e-commerce sector, a majority of these have been acquired through acquisitions and not its fancy tech. If its products were superior, DPO wouldn’t need to buy out any competition. On the other hand, the acquisitions will give it the volumes it wants to turn profitable or go public.

DPO Group CEO, Eran Feinstein seems to expound on these acquisitions.

 “Setcom has continuously innovated and achieved impressive results in the South African payment space,” he said. “We plan to expand and promote SID to all current and future merchants across our markets so that they may offer this payment option to their customers, further helping them to enhance their businesses.”

Peer-to-peer lending platform Pezesha launches instant SMS loans capability for non-smartphone borrowers

By
TechMoran
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0
Kenya’s peer-to-peer lending platform Pezesha has unveiled a new feature allowing borrowers to apply for loans via SMS.
The firm said the feature will require borrowers to only send the word “Apply” to Pezesha’s SMS short code 22235 to get loans instantly. These feature will also be helpful to borrowers who have no smartphones as more than 60 percent of mobile phone users in Kenya and Africa use non-smartphones.
“Pezesha aims to use this SMS channel to bring choice and financial inclusion to the more than 6 Million excluded informal populations of micro businesses in Kenya. Most important use our agent networks across the country to enlighten our low income households target on financial literacy that elevates them up the financial ladder,” said the firm on its blog.
For a borrower to apply for loans on SMS, she or he must be a registered and vetted user, he or she must have taken at least one loan with Pezesha after registration and must have no pending payments on their previous loan.

The firm also says the borrower must have paid BOTH their first and second installments in time.

Here are the steps for use:

 

What is the greatest challenge of the African FinTech Sector?

By
Daniel Anuoluwapelumi Moses
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When I interview founders that have launched a startup in the FinTech sector, I am always eager to know what they view as the biggest challenge in their sector. Do I need to emphasize the rise of start-ups in this sector that made us wonder if we’d even be needing banks in some years to come.

You can take this poll before we move…

Chatting with some founders operating in the space, below are the highlights of their responses.

Edmond Adokwu, is the founder of SafeTrade, a secured way of carrying out transactions (i.e. Item and Service transactions). According to him,

The biggest challenge would be earning the trust of the public. Earning the trust of the public is a milestone every company in the Fintech space will have to overcome.

 

On his own hand, Aziz Yerima, CEO PayDunya says CASH is the greatest challenge of the African FinTech industry.

Africans still love using money in cash and this is our big barrier.

 

Weeks back, we were in touch with Tonnie Nyabuto, CEO of BrillantPay, which was created to solve the enormous payment problem that comes with e-commerce. But what does Tonnie see as the greatest challenge in this industry? See below:

The greatest challenge in FinTech is access to data. Most FinTech solutions ride on banks and these banks aren’t as open. Banks don’t share their data except within themselves. Although lately a few banks have started offering open APIs for FinTechs, they are still reluctant and cautious in doing so. To create better FinTech solutions, there is need to access data, synthesize it well and then develop a useful solution.

 

Bernie Akporiaye, Co-founder of MaTontine, a startup that provides small loans thinks regulation is the greatest challenge.

“We have found the regulators to be very inflexible. Also it seems to me that the financial services rules being used to regulate today’s FinTech companies were designed decades ago for legacy financial institutions.

 

And lastly, Cedric Ngondi who co-founded crowdfunding platform Guanxi invest thinks there are 3 main challenges faced by the fintech industry in Africa right now which include:

Payments methods, culture and behavior of the local population and regulations.

 

So tell us what you think is the greatest challenge of the African FinTech industry? Let’s hear you.

Big Data, the catalyst of Innovation and Success

By
Brian Baraka
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0

Big Data as one of the most important digital trends is changing the business environment. Business entities no longer have to undergo the struggle of processing huge chunks of raw data manually since with the necessary technology infrastructure work has been made easier. Organizations now have the mandate to just look at the processed data and come up with excellent mechanisms to put the data into use in maximizing of profits and general scaling of the organizations.

How Big Data works as a powering tool

Big data is one of the key tools of Digital Transformation. Organizations that are able to use their data analytics accordingly have a competitive advantage over their counterparts and obvious will boast of a high success level because of the high value results. Information being crucial in a business set up, the need to integrate a reliable platform for big data processing has the potential to the issues of lack of adequate information in organizations. Digital Transformation enables companies embrace a culture of change.

With Big Data, there has been revolutionizing of the whole technology and business scene since organizations now have a better understanding of their target markets.

As the urge to generate quality data and having the ability to use it is on the rise, the need for data storage applications and infrastructure will no doubt increase significantly. This is the ultimate way of processing large volumes of data and coming up with insights from the data to add value to organizations. Therefore, these insights and statistical reports on what the consumers prefer helps business entities to improve their general performance and make valuable decisions which will drive revenues into the business.

The continuing integration of Big Data in industries is making it possible for real-time information sharing making it possible for organizations to be on the look out and up to date with the current trends in consumer expectations and preferences. It helps businesses in identifying customer pain points in the digital world for marketers to focus on. When a business has the ability to exceed customer expectations then it is always on the forefront in its respective industry which is an advantage thereby improving its capacity to retain customers and gain their loyalty.

Since big data relies on machine to machine communication and incorporates networks of data gathering sensors, the whole process has been made possible by the virtual, mobile and instantaneous connection nature of big data. This has empowered many different industry experts to be able to analyze the data and be in a strong position to predict the future trends and admire that Big Data has the power and capacity to make everything in our lives smart and instantaneous.

Zazu raises £200,000 through crowdfunding platform Seedrs to launch a digital-only bank in Africa

By
TechMoran
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0
Zazu, which began at the Ignite Accelerator as an e-commerce platform for farmers has raised over £200,000 for a 7.51% equity at a pre-money valuation of £2.5m to build a digital-only bank in Africa, bringing financial inclusion to millions.
Co-founded by Perseus Mlambo, CEO, Adam Farah, CTO and Alessandra MartiniCOO, the UK firm had sought £150,000 for 5.73 percent equity. The 21st century bank for Africa is targeting Zambia’s 1.2 Million adults in formal employment, 1.4 Million running SME’s and 2 million emerging farmers who it says are unhappy with the high cost of banking.

“We are aiming to issue 100,000 accounts in Zambia before December 2018. We are currently in talks with a potential sponsor bank, with whom we hope that we would be able to expand to other African countries,” the team said.

Zazu will have a prepaid card with a companion app for users to tack spending and control on the card. The card will cost $2 with a monthly subscription of $2. The bank works simply. Users download Zazu, register and order their Zazu cards. Then they top up their Zazu account with their existing credit or debit card, and get ready to access all of the features of a cutting edge digital only account.

“Once the card is in your hands, you just activate it by following the instructions provided. Once activated, the Zazu card can be used at 44 million locations in over 220 countries worldwide,” says the firm on its site.

Users can set spending goals, see where they are spending their money and know exactly how much is left on their card, right from the iOS or Android phone app.
Zazu will also have cash deposits at participating retailers, Zoona, MTN, Airtel wallets or buying Zazu vouchers from distributors.

Engineers Without Borders Canada invests in startup SME lending marketplace Bloom Impact

By
TechMoran
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0
http://4526.com/short-loans/mx1157.html

Ghana’s Bloom Impact, a machine learning loans marketplace accessible from smartphones has raised undisclosed funding from Engineers Without Borders Canada, EWB Ventures, an early-stage investor in innovative Africa-based social enterprises.

EWB has also invested in M-Shule, Numida Technologies, FarmDrive and Rent-to-Own. Its latest investment in Africa will allow MSMEs to create a digital profile, learn about and apply for financial services, and receive offers that best meet their needs.

According to Elena Haba, Legal and Investment Officer with EWB’s Strategy and Investment team, “For us, the unique approach and scalability of Bloom’s potential impact was most compelling. By working on closing the financial gap faced by MSME’s, Bloom is helping these small businesses grow and generate much-needed employment opportunities for underserved individuals.”

EWB believes that by supporting MSMEs to thrive, the jobs generated through them and the wealth created by them can ultimately help alleviate poverty. EWB also thinks Bloom will be particularly useful for women, who face many barriers in accessing traditional banking and financial services.

In addition to the tremendous convenience and cost savings Bloom Impact provides for MSMEs, creating financially educated business owners is also a critical component.

Bloom Impact also partners with banks and microfinance institutions and it disrupts their customer acquisition approach by cutting costs and providing digital, eligible, validated, scored and financially-educated customers.

The investment will help Bloom Impact to grow its product adoption, referral and incentive programs, as well as advance product development.

“EWB understands the barriers that prevent scale and growth in emerging markets and how social enterprises can have an impact,” says Bloom Impact Co-Founder and CEO, Carol Caruso. “We are delighted to partner with EWB due to this experience on the ground, our shared mission to drive inclusive finance and EWB’s wealth of talent management support, which is critical to our success.”

SolarNow raises $6m in debt financing from SunFunder, responsAbility and Oikocredit to expand its reach

By
TechMoran
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0

 

SolarNow has received a $6 million facility lead by SunFunder with the participation of  responsAbility Investments AG and Oikocredit to expand their pay-as-you-go or solar lease offerings to reach more people living without access to energy.

The $6 million facility is SolarNow’s second structured asset finance instrument, SAFI will help the firm expand its client’s pay-as-you-go or solar lease offerings to reach more people living without access to energy.

According to Willem Nolens, SolarNow CEO, “This new step of our partnership will enable us to continue tackling the massive unmet market opportunity in East Africa of providing affordable energy to millions of off-grid households, and to reach 70% of Uganda’s off-grid population with solar home systems.”

SunFunder acted as the Arranger, Lender and Facility Agent for the $6 million facility, with each lender providing $2 million to the facility.

SolarNow sells, finances and installs modular solar systems and solar appliances (TVs, fridges, water pumps, etc.) to rural households and entrepreneurs through a network of 55 branches and 750 staff in Uganda and Kenya.

DFS Lab calls for applications for its third fintech bootcamp holding in Tanzania

By
TechMoran
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0

DFS Lab, a fintech accelerator funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is accepting applications for their third fintech bootcamp, which will be held Dec. 3-9, 2017 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

DFS will give up to USD 50K in funding to top fintech businesses and six months in DFS Lab’s proven approach accelerator.

“We are excited to have the opportunity to invest in breakthrough technologies that can help reach the billions of people in South Asia and Africa who lack financial services,” said DFS Lab Director Dr. Jake Kendall. “Our goal is to identify, invest, and work with early-stage companies who are building transformative technologies that will help improve the lives of unbanked citizens.”

Since launching in 2015, DFS Lab has invested more than in 18 startups. The Lab is currently interested in entrepreneurs that are creating solutions for customers that function on non-smartphones, as well as new approaches for closing the financial services gender gap. But they encourage applications from any great team with a breakthrough idea.

Over the past year, finalists in previous cohorts representing companies headquartered in Africa and South Asia went through intensive 1-week boot camp programs in Tanzania and Sri Lanka. In addition to financing, the companies selected receive six months of intense mentorship and integration into a global network of top experts who have agreed to advise them.

Entrepreneurs who wish to be considered should apply to DFS Lab Bootcamp Three by Nov. 3, 2017, at dfslab.net/apply.

Kenya’s Pezesha and Pula, an insurance intermediary for small-scale farmers in Africa and Ghana’s Inclusive, an API that verifies financial identities across Africa and US-based Teller are set to raise $250,000 in funding from DFS Lab.

Meet telecommunications Expert and an emerging women leader Topy Muga,

By
Susan Mwenesi
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0

Financial inclusion and telecommunications expert Topy Muga is one of the TechWomen emerging women leaders in Africa. In fact, The techie is actually a decorated financial inclusion and fintech personality with a very impressive experience in the digital world, spanning thirteen years. However, where did it all start?

Topy is actually an alumnus of Alliance Girl’s High School where she sat for her high school certificate and proceeded to the Jomo Kenyatta University for a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Information Technology and a Higher Diploma in Management of Information Systems from Strathmore University. The tenacious lady was also lucky to get a Nelson Mandela scholarship to study at INSEAD Business School in France where she received a Masters in Business Administration.

According to her website, Topy strongly believes that financial inclusion is the means to accelerating economic empowerment for the underserved populations. She advocates for greater access to financial services by all men and women, young and old.

In this regard, Ruth has been the M-Pesa Principal Product Manager at Vodafone Group based in London, England where she led M-Pesa commercial and strategy for emerging markets, product development and new markets launches.

Besides her expertise in financial inclusion, Topy is also a fintech expert. and her personal mission is to enable as many individuals and businesses around the world experience other ways to enhance digital, tech, and socio-cultural inclusion in achieving their aspirations.

She has spearheaded financial inclusion initiatives during her work in organizations including Vodafone and Airtel.

Prior to joining Visa, Topy headed Airtel Kenya’s mobile money business. She was a member of the Payments Association of Kenya (PAK) and the Mobile Money Association of Kenya (MMAK) steering committees whose objectives are to increase financial inclusion with assistance of the Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) Kenya.

Topy has held several roles in general management, strategy, operations, technology, and product and business transformation as well which have contributed immensely to her career journey.

Currently, she is the Senior Director for Financial Inclusion Africa at Visa, based in Nairobi, Kenya. She is committed to driving the growth in access to financial services for the underserved population of Sub Saharan Africa.

To add another feather to her cap, Topy was chosen as one of the ten women from Kenya for the  TechWomen.  TechWomen is an Initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs fintech that brings emerging women leaders in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) from Africa, Central Asia, and the Middle East together with their counterparts in the United States for a professional mentorship and exchange program.

TechWomen connects and supports the next generation of women leaders in STEM fields by providing them access and opportunity to advance their careers and pursue their dreams.

During the five-week program, participants engage in project-based mentorships at leading companies in Silicon Valley, participate in workshops and networking events throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and travel to Washington, D.C. for targeted meetings and special events to conclude the program.

Topy is currently in the USA  where she and fellow Kenyan women have just won a seed grant that will help them implement the digniti project that aims to improve toilet sanitation in rural primary schools in Kenya.

Apart from her role in driving financial inclusion, Topy enjoys and regularly participates in initiatives, conferences and events that seek to promote inclusion and encourage women participation in technology. Some of the notable ones include San Francisco International Women Entrepreneurs Forum (SFIWEF) in Spain, London School of Economics (LSE) Africa Summit in United Kingdom and Thought Leadership at the ICT4D  Conference in  Rockefeller Bellagio Center in Italy.

 

Jumia to give online loans to its vendors across Africa to bolster its inventory

By
TechMoran
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0

Rocket Internet-backed Jumia has launched an online lending programme for its merchants in Kenya, Nigeria, Egypt, Morocco and Ivory Coast helping them borrow loans to grow their inventory, and help it become an everyday and everything store.

By leveraging on transactional, operational and behavioral data on its vendors, Jumia believes it can work with partners to provide credit facilities to vendors who are the B2C platform’s lifeline.

“We are always working with those partners and we bring them business online and by just listening to them we realized how difficult it was for them to access funding. So we realized they had a problem and we thought we could help them solve their problem by using the Jumia data to provide them with better financing opportunities,” Jumia co-CEO Sacha Poignonnec  told TechMoran on the side lines of the TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield Africa held in Nairobi.

The whole idea that the vendors-technically SMEs have little access to financing and if they do, it’s so expensive. So Jumia decided to mine its vendor data, get the right financing partners who will extend credit to the vendors to help the SMEs grow their online businesses.

Jumia is therefore creating a virtual Sacco where the vendors can access better finance from various financial institutions to create a win-win situation for both Jumia, its merchants and the financial institutions.

 

With low interest rates of up to 12% per annum, Jumia believes the loans will help provide the much needed working capital vendors need to buy goods to sell on the Jumia platform. With more items on Jumia, there will be less need for guys to shop offline or visit other sites such as Konga in Nigeria among others.

However, for Jumia this is about choice and price for its customers as Africa is in the early stage of ecommerce and the move will imply shoppers can be sure of finding whatever good or service they are looking for online instead of looking for elsewhere.

“It’s really about bringing the relevant products to people and when we started a lot of transactions were for people to buy mobile phones and fashion but once you have bought one mobile phone you cannot buy a mobile phone everyday. So, it’s really about fulfilling people’s needs. Today, if you go to Jumia in Nigeria  or in Kenya you will see a lot of grocery items,  fashion, hygienic items, diapers, cream toothpaste and pampers, you see a lot of new products bringing which are fulfilling everyday needs to the people. To us its about about bringing more and more choice to people and better prices to the people that when they go to Jumia they can always save time and money because they can find whatever they are looking for.”

The firm has not mentioned the financial partners and its still mum whether the public would soon be allowed to access loans on Jumia, but that is the plan, to make it the go to place for everything.

That’s the push Jumia is doing now. Going down to people’s needs and making sure that whatever it is they need they can find it on Jumia. So that Jumia becomes an option for them to buy anything anytime. Jumia will need to sort out its instant citywide delivery to become Africa’s everything everyday store and reign on estate kiosks.

 

Peer-to-peer marketplace Pezesha to participate at the Blackbox Connect 20 in Silicon Valley

By
TechMoran
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0

Kenya’s Pezesha.com a peer-to-peer micro-lending marketplace for Africa has been selected to participate at the upcoming Blackbox Connect 20 accelerator programme, a two-week residential programme for startup founders from across the globe.

Holding in Silicon Valley in November this year, Blackbox is an entrepreneur-first approach that aims to make entrepreneurs the core engine for global economic growth, and that they need someone in their corner as they build the future.

Blacbox helps talented startup founders emerge as stronger leaders to help them redefine what’s possible for themselves, their company, their community, and the world.

Pezesha, which has given more than 5,000 borrowers from a pool of more than 100 local lenders in just 10 months of operation, says it aims to use the two-week stay to connect with ”fellow talented founders from more than 40 countries to share ideas, networks and partnerships and build relationships with the pool of experienced venture capitalists, and subject matter experts as well as access to strategic resources to fuel Pezesha’s growth and global expansion.”

Blackbox says it’s rethinking the traditional accelerator model which largely focused on creating a pipeline for investors instead of working to create a strong foundation under the founder which elevates their long-term potential, expands their worldview, exposes them to new opportunities, and connects them to their own greatness.

Oolu raises ​​​​$3.2​​m Series A round from Persistent​​ Energy ​​Capital​​ & ​​Y ​​Combinator to expand in West Africa

By
TechMoran
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0

Y Combinator start-up Oolu​, an off-grid solar companies in Senegal has raised $3.2m led by ​Persistent Energy Capital (PEC), and was joined by ​Y Combinator (YC) ​and other seed investors. ​

Oolu will use the money to further invest in its current​​ operations ​​in​​ Senegal​​ and​​ Mali,​​and ​​to​​ expand ​​into ​​a​​ third​​ market ​​in ​​2018.

According to Dan​​ Rosa,​​ Co-Founder ​​and​​ Chief​​ Executive ​​Officer ​​of​​ Oolu,​​ “This fundraise is an important milestone, and a further boost for us at a very exciting time for the company where we see real and significant opportunities in the West African markets.

The two year-old firm distributes affordable in-home solar kits with three adjustable lights and two USB plugs, powered by a battery that holds a charge for up to six hours with maximum output. For a low monthly fee, paid through mobile money, Oolu installs the system and performs any necessary maintenance, including free battery replacements and system upgrades.

The company has ambitious expansion plans in terms of both its product offering and geographic reach. Although the first consumer offering is solar home systems, a number of different products are being piloted, and Oolu’s vision extends to becoming the leading financial services​​ provider ​​to ​​rural​​ households ​​in​​ West​​ Africa ​​and ​​beyond.

The $3.2 million round of equity investment follows its seed round in 2015, and will support Oolu’s continued growth and strategy as it seeks to address the energy needs of the more than 150 million ​​people​​ who ​​live ​​without ​​access ​​to​​ electricity ​​in​​ West​​Africa.

The off-grid sector has seen more than US$360 million in investment across Africa in the past five years and continues to grow rapidly due to a drop in component and storage prices. Given the high barriers to entry in this sector, Oolu’s established market position—selling over 25,000 solar home systems (SHS) in under 2 years—experienced leadership team and strong investor backing mean it is well-placed to capitalise on wider market growth and better deliver clean energy​​ services ​​to ​​underserved​​ customers.

”Oolu has grown impressively quickly in one of the most unpredictable and difficult markets in the world. We funded them precisely because those are the qualities that they will need to make their business successful, and they are ​​already ​​on ​​the ​​right​​ path,” said Geoff ​​Ralston,​​ Partner ​​at ​​Y​​Combinator.

 

 

How to find Investors for your Startup

By
Brian Baraka
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0

 

 

Africa has experienced a rampant rise of inventions and startups that have gone a long way from the minds of inventors to disrupting the Sub Saharan ecosystem solving very many problems that have been a setback to the growth of the continent for ages. From the rise of startups in fintech helping in payment related challenges, innovations in media and advertising mechanisms, health sector, eCommerce and so many others. It is evident that through technology Africa will unleash its potential as a continent on the rise with new opportunities coming up thus entrepreneurs with brilliant ideas have the chance to bring them to life.

Starting a startup and scaling it up has not been a walk in the park to many African change makers due to so many prevailing factors and conditions. One of the biggest factor is the struggle to have a sustaining financial muscle that makes it possible  for startups to develop their products and services and growing their customer base. The ability of a startup to attract a pool of investors is one of the ways of ensuring a startup survives  its initial stages. Investors who believe in an idea have the power to determine the success of a startup but the big question remains on where to find the suitable investors who will pump in finances and advice. Here are several primary strategies startups can use to meet investors.

Cold Call Submissions

There are countless lists of Angel Investor groups online over the internet where you can research and find out what firms do deals in what industries and then send them a proposal to them for review. Be sure that your chances of even getting an answer is at best one percent and your chance of that answer being a yes is about the same as that of getting hit by a car crossing the street while reading this article. The main point is that you really need to have your idea pitched at its best since you are using email to reach out to investors.

Using a Deal Broker

Way back before the internet when dinosaurs roamed the earth, If you wanted to get the attention of an Angel Investor, Venture Capital firms or Private equity firms you had to go to a broker pay a good sum of money to have them develop a plan for you and then use their connections as a broker to introduce you to deal makers. Most of these ‘plan sharks’ as I would call them, are just looking to take money and have no more chance of getting your startup funded than one percent and above.

Online Communities

There are so many online communities such as Gust, SeenInvest and Crunchbase which are a den of high profile investors that out lay what each of the investors are looking to invest in. It is therefore hard to go wrong with a strategy like that and often has a good chance of hearing from the investors

Local Angel Investor Network

Some investors prefer to invest locally. Local investors have access to inside data on local business startups and can plug in you into a good number of opportunities. Most of these networks have a range of the amount of funds they are wiling to put in startups but they offer a good chance for entrepreneurs. A good example is Kenya’s KCB Lions Den.

Retain a Business or Patent Legislator

The best way to get introduced to ‘people who know people’ is to hire the best lawyer or attorney that money can buy, pay the retainer, take them to lunch once in a while then have them introduce you to other clients of theirs that are in a similar industries that can help you move your deal forward. This has a high chance of success and lunch is always good.

Crowdfund It

This happens to be one of the widely used means of funding startups where many small amounts of money are raised from a large number of people over the internet. It involves  three parties: The project initiator who proposes the project, individuals or groups who support the project as see it being viable and a moderating organization which brings the parties together Kickstarter being an example

Private Investors

The best chance of getting funded are private investors who are actively seeking and building opportunities. This is a much better odds if you have your act together. If you have something that is ready then it is the best chance of moving forward you will find.

 

DumaPay adds mVisa, simplifies online payments using Email Pay to take on Mula

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TechMoran
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0

Direct pay Online Group has revamped its little known payments app Dumapay pairing the card reader and the merchants’ phone using Bluetooth to help merchants save time every time they want to make a sale.

The company said through a statement that merchants will also enjoy the DUMAPAY app 2.0 as it comes with a more detailed transaction history and they will be able to know which payments were accepted and which ones failed in real- time.

Dumapay is taking on Cellulant’s Mula which is proving to be a hit with over 10,000 installs compared to Dumapay’s less than 100 downloads. The revamped app will see merchants receive instant payment transactions through Quick Pay or email Pay in real time via Visa, Mastercard, American Express, M-PESA, Airtel Money, MTN Money and Tigo.

The revamped app will also allow merchants to receive payments in multiple currencies and show them their transaction history via the app to track payments going in and out.

Direct pay Online Group says the new DUMAPAY version 2.0 supports multiple payment options in Africa and merchants using the app will be able to accept card, e-wallets and mobile payments such as Visa, Mastercard, American Express, M-PESA, Airtel Money, MTN Money, Tigo and mVisa.

“This new version of the DUMAPAY payments app ensures that our merchants are efficient and offer greater security when dealing with customer information. It also opens them up to accept payments from all major credit cards, mobile money and e-wallets” Eran Feinstein, the DPO Group CEO stated.

 

WorldRemit partners Morocco’s Wafacash to expand instant money transfers across Africa

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TechMoran
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0

Digital money transfer firm WorldRemit has partnered with Morocco-based financial services firm Wafacash to scale up instant money transfers across West and Central Africa.

The companies already work together in Morocco and Senegal, but will expand into Cameroon, Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger and Cote D’Ivoire before the end of the year.

The new service will let WorldRemit customers in over 50 countries transfer money as easily as sending an instant message, using the app or website.

According to Samira Khamlichi, Chief Executive at Wafacash, “By extending our partnership with WorldRemit we wish to contribute to the improvement of the financial inclusion in our country and to the diversification of legal financial channels. Our extended partnership will allow WorldRemit customers in over 50 countries to send money to our cash pick up locations across the region.”

Wafacash is a subsidiary of Attijariwafa Bank. The company currently has pay-out points at Wafacash offices and Attijariwafa Bank branches and agents, enabling customers to pick up funds quickly and conveniently.

Remittances in the region have experienced a decade of strong growth, amounting to a projected $34 billion across Sub-Saharan Africa in 2017. According to the World Bank, the value of remittances to Cameroon, Cote D’Ivoire and Senegal grew by an estimated 86%, 130% and 74% respectively, between 2006 and 2015.

Morocco alone received over $7 billion in 2015 according to the World Bank, the equivalent of 7% of its GDP.

This expansion means more cash pickup points in the region, making our service even more convenient to  WorldRemit customers.

In June WorldRemit announced a global integration with Google’s Android Pay, followed by a partnership with Huawei’s mobile money platform across Africa. WorldRemit customers now complete 700,000 transfers every month from more than 50 send countries to over 140 receiving destinations.

 

This insurance policy covers systems outage in the Internet of Things era

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TechMoran
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0

With the advent of Internet of Things, data is one of the most important assets in the world yet its not covered by standard property insurance policies.

Therefore any interruption to an organisation’s systems means an interruption to firms to conduct their core businesses. Data protection should therefore be at the center of every organisation to avoid a hack attack or computer virus or in case a malicious employee brings down these systems.

But where can one find cover for business interruption during such attacks? In 2016 alone, Kenya lost about Sh18 billion ($175 million) to cybercrime with over 48.4 per cent of all government agencies reporting data loss due to a virus attack according to an ICT security survey conducted by Kenya National Bureau of Statistics & Communications Authority of Kenya (CA)

The report adds that 5.1% of businesses and 7.1% of State institutions are hacked annually, and that while most businesses were eager to download antivirus software, only 15 percent had systems to detect intruders.

Innovative insurance products are therefore needed to provide cover against attacks, eliminate exposure to Cyber risk and even protect third party data or data users.

Cyber Enterprise Solutions, a product from Aon Kenya, is that cover of the future. Unlike traditional policies, the policy is designed to cover property damage arising out of a network security breach; data exposure, business interruption and systems failure compensation. The policy also covers cyber terrorism and any other liabilities caused by an attack.

AON says the cyber risk solution is a response to the growing cyber criminality threatening both corporates and SMEs targeted by hackers with ransomware. Aon Cyber Enterprise Solution provides insurance cover for loss of profits associated with systems outage that might be caused by a “non-physical” threat like a computer virus.

Airtel Money launches M-Fanisi, a savings & loan facility to take on M-Shwari & KCB M-Pesa

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TechMoran
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0

 

Kenya’s Maisha Microfinance Bank has partnered with Airtel Money to launch M-Fanisi – a savings and loan mobile money solution targeted at Airtel Money subscribers to help them save and borrow money via their mobile phones.

According to Prasanta Das Sarma, Managing Director of Airtel Kenya, “This partnership offers Airtel Money customers more for less, in that they can borrow affordably and save at competitive interest rates, in addition to enjoying the lowest charges on voice and data services in the market.”

M-Fanisi says it’s key competitive features include access to loans repayable within 7 days, 14 days and 30 days at an attractive one-off facility fee of 3%, 5% and 7.5% respectively with excise duty applicable on the fees.

Fixed deposit accounts can be opened for a period of 1 to 12 months and earn attractive interest of between 8.50% p.a. to 11.25% p.a. depending on period. Savings accounts opened earn interest of 7% p.a and money transfered in and out of the M-Fanisi to Airtel Money is FREE.

The two firms with developer Blue Sky Consultants says they have signed up over 50,000 accounts with over 20,000 loans accessed already at an average of up to 2000 loan applications per day but we are having a hard time believing them.

Airtel Money is technically dead and it won’t be of any use to Maisha Microfinance’s M-Fanisi. Airtel has just 1.7 million monthly active users out of its 6.3 million subscribers as at March 2017 down from 6.8 million subscriptions in December 2016 compared to Telkom Kenya’s 2.8 million and Safaricom’s 28.1 million customers according to a March 2017 quarterly report by Kenya Communications Authority. 

Instead of partnering with struggling Airtel, Maisha Microfinance would have just launched a smartphone app to take on Tala and Branch which are open to both Safaricom’s M-PESA and Airtel Money subscribers. The partnership is likely to turn out to be the most unfruitful decision in the micro-finances lifetime.

Maisha Microfinance Bank also opened its third Branch and rolled out of the M-Doh (doh is old school street slang for money) a mobile-based application that allows customers to carry out all their banking needs, including making deposits and transfers and paying utilities.

 

 

 

Branch confirms its $2m funding & officially launches in Nigeria

By
TechMoran
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0

Mobile financial services firm Branch has confirmed it raised KSh200m through a commercial paper arranged by Kenya’s Nabo Capital as TechMoran had earlier reported.

The firm has officially launched in Nigeria too, after reaching 450,000 customers in Kenya who have collectively taken out 2m loans totalling KSh 4 billion.

“Branch has achieved something unique in the Kenyan market. Despite being a startup that’s less than 3 years old, they have managed to issue a competitively-priced paper without relying on any external guarantees”, said Teresia Muthoni, General Manager of Advisory at Nabo Capital.

Since launching in the Kenyan market in the spring of 2015, Branch has seen strong demand for its unsecured loans. Applications for up to KSh 50,000 can be made via the Branch Android app, with successful applicants receiving their loans via M-Pesa in seconds.

The mobile lender has reached a monthly disbursement run-rate of KSh 400m and is growing its loan book by 15% every month. Branch used its loan book as collateral for the facility in one of the first deals of its kind.

Daniel Szlapak, Director of Africa for Branch, explains that the company will look to debt funding to expand its business worldwide.  “We expect to raise close to $50 million dollars in both equity and debt funding in the months ahead as we take the Branch App to emerging economies across the globe.”

The company expanded to Tanzania in 2016 and has recently started lending  in Nigeria.  Other markets across the globe will follow. Branch uses proprietary machine learning algorithm to make lending decisions. It uses advanced data science to calculate a credit score for its customers by analysing the information on their phone. Branch’s toughest competitor is Silicon Valley-based and heavily funded Tala formerly known as Mkopo Rahisi.

In December 2015, Branch became the first African company to raise investment from US firm Andreessen Horowitz, whose portfolio includes Facebook and AirBnB, closing a $9.2m Series A round. The mobile-based financial services company has since raised over $15m in equity and debt funding to date.

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